Eva was sleeping peacefully on her dog bed, slowly rolling from side to side, her two white tails wagging excitedly as she dreamt. If she had been more awake, the vixen would have readily admitted that it was the best purchase she had made since coming to Japan a couple of weeks ago. Even though it was just an oversized brown pillow.

Her spartan room was just getting invaded by the first rays of sunshine, which hit the small desk sitting directly underneath it. Beyond that and the dog bed there was only an empty wall closet in the room.

Her sleep was about to be cut short as the hands on her alarm clock moved ever closer to six thirty, when the clock’s alarm would mercilessly drag Eva back to the conscious world. As it rang, her hazel eyes shot open, her dreams already half forgotten.

Letting out an annoyed growl, she flicked one of her tails to the side. It missed the alarm clock on the first try, drawing forth another growl of annoyance as the young Kitsune had to admit to not being as used to her tails yet as she would have liked.

After she turned the alarm off successfully on the second try, Eva sniffed the air. There was no smell of breakfast in it, so she rolled around to laze in bed for a few more precious moments. But not even a minute later the annoying sun had to shine right in her face, so she slowly rose up from her bed. Letting out a loud yawn, she stretched out the last vestiges of sleep from her limbs before leaving her oversized pillow with a jump.

Landing on a pair of human feet, Eva continued to stretch, the sleeves of the simple green yukata she now wore sliding down her lightly tanned skin. Bringing her hands back down, she gave the base of her fox ears, where their white fur met her light brown hair, a few scratches.

Sliding the door out of her small room open, she blinked a couple of times as she adjusted to the lighting of the corridor. Half a dozen doors filled the walls, which were only broken up for the stairs leading down to the first floor.

“Morning Eva.” A small Tanuki greeted her as she walked up to the bathroom he had just left.

“Good morning Toya.” Came the prompt, albeit sleepy response. As always she tried her best not to stare at his sizeable testicles, and focused instead on the patch of dark brown fur at the tip of Toya’s tail.

Once she closed the door behind her, Eva let her clothes dissolve as she stepped into the shower. While she could probably have used the same powers to clean herself thoroughly that she used to transform, she was too used to showering in the morning to drop the habit after little over a week.

After spending half an hour drying her tails and hair, the fox-spirit vigorously shook her head. When she stopped her hair fell down forming her favorite style, one long braid in the back, with two shorter ones framing her face. A moment of concentration later she was wearing a bottle green hoodie over a black shirt, as well as a short pleated green skirt and a pair of leggins.

“Good Morning Lady Mayer” came the prompt greeting from Yukiko, who had once again worn nearly nothing to cover her snow white skin, despite the chilly Autumn night that had just passed.

“Good Morning Lady Shiroda” Eva replied, mocking the asian woman’s continued reluctance to address her more casually. Watching as Yukiko’s icy blue eyes narrowed with annoyance, the Kitsune decided not to push her luck with the Yuki-Onna this morning. Instead she made her way down the stairs to help Toya prepare breakfast for the group of Youkai living at the Mumeikitsune-Shrine.

As she stepped from the wooden stairs onto the Tatami Mat floor of the buildings main room she needed a moment to get used to the mat’s texture against her bare feet. This room took up about half the space available on the buildings lowest floor. The rest was taken up by the kitchen and a smaller room to receive important visitors to the shrine. A door led to the later from the genkan, while the door to the kitchen was on the wall opposite of the stairs.

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Just as she started on crossing the room to help Toya with breakfast, a squirrel dropped from the ceiling onto her head, grabbing a hold of both her ears. “Hey Eva, what’s my favorite German Fox planning to do today?”

“Going to my classes at University.” Eva said as she picked Ratatoskr from her head, “And maybe see to my divine duties after that if there’s anything to do.”

“That’s sooooo boooring”, he complained as he tried to turn around in her grip. “Can’t we do something fun instead? I heard Dionysos is throwing a great party in Olymp in a couple of hours, want to come to that instead?”

“Dionysos? Isn’t that the *Greek* god of wine?” Eva inquired as she sat Ratatoskr down on the rooms main table as she passed it.

“Yup, that’s the guy.” The squirrel replied with a nod of his tiny head. “Still not coming?”

“Yes, I am still not coming with you to get drunk.” She replied as she opened the door to the Kitchen. Closing it as quickly as she could, Eva took a quick breather before turning to Toya who was in his usual guise of a young Miko and tending to a pan frying some fish.

“Ah good timing Eva, breakfast is just about done, so if you could set the table please?”

“Sure.” She mumbled before getting to work.

About ten minutes later the old Kodama Komaki stepped into the room and kneeled down before the table. He was dressed in robes befitting the shrine’s high priest, a position he had held for generation. His skin was a slightly greyish white, and with the incountbale little wrinkles crisscrossing all over it made it look surprisingly similar to the birch tree he inhabited that stood as the only tree on the shrine grounds. At least if one didn’t count the bamboo surrounding the shrine itself.

“Do remember to hide your ears and tails young Kami.” He chastised Eva, who had just started eating her Breakfast.

“Ah, yes of course.” She replied with a blush on her cheeks as her ears and tails slowly vanished.

“Good.” He simply replied before picking up the newspaper Toya had laid out for him in lieu of food.

“Thanks for breakfast Toya.” Eva shouted into the Kitchen before she stood up and walked to the front door. She picked up her messenger bag with her hometown’s coat of arms, a child wearing black and yellow robes, from where she had dropped it yesterday. When Eva stepped onto the genkan, her feet were clad in sturdy boots rather than the comfortable slippers she had worn before.

After giving the customary goodbye of “Ittekimasu”, the Kitsune stepped outside and made her way across the grounds. She walked alongside the ring like pond separating the shrine itself from the rest of the world to reach the small red bridge that crossed it.

Picking up a ladle full of water from the small well before the bridge’s first Torii, she quickly rinsed her hands and mouth. Making sure no early visitors were around, she walked in the center of the bridge, as well as the middle of the cobble stone path leading from the bridges second Torii on its other side to the shrine.

Even if it was a breach of etiquette, the center of a shrine’s paths was reserved for the Kami and the Tenno, she couldn’t help herself. Whenever she walked this path like that, she breathed easier, as if she had stepped out of a campfire’s smoke.

Passing by the small hut with the donation box and bell, she stepped through the third,well fourth if you counted the one separating the shrine grounds from the boardwalk. It was the simplest of them , consisting only of two wooden pillars and a thick rope tied to their tops that then hung down to form a small fence between the smaller wooden post around the actual shrine.

Walking around to the back of the shrine, she opened a door and stepped into a small storage room. As she picked up the only package she needed to deliver as part of her duties as a Divine Messenger, or as she referred to it ‘Mail-Fox’, that day, Eva thought back to the night she got dropped into this world of gods and spirits a bit over a week ago.